Brad Keith Sigmon Execution

There are six executions this month, four within two days and five over eight days. This is an atypical heavy month when recently, less than thirty executions occurred in a year. Each execution this month is in a separate state, including atypical ones. 

South Carolina has started to execute people again after a hiatus. Sigmon chose the firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair. The firing squad sounds barbaric (and is relatively speaking), but very well might be the best choice given the options. 

People find execution by firing squad too gruesome and in your face. The firing squad was generally used in areas with a large Mormon presence (for religious reasons) and by the military. You won't have shortages of bullets (contra lethal injection drugs). 

And, experts (even those not big fans of the death penalty) argue that it is less likely to be a lingering death. Sotomayor flagged that some favor the firing squad. A more conservative judge argued it was more honest.  Will the guillotine be next? 

His final Hail Mary appeals regarded allegations that the state was unconstitutionally denying him information regarding lethal injection drugs, including evidence from past executions. This blocked his ability to choose among the three options freely. 

The justices, as normal, rejected them without comment. They also granted a motion to file a supplemental appendix under seal. The news articles about the order skipped over this part. Sigmon's lawyers requested it to address private autopsy material involving past lethal injection executions. 

Here is a good background article on his case, including some details of how the firing squad works. The article also discusses the challenge to the use of lethal injection, including allegations of problems in the recent usages. Again, when doing research for these execution discussions, I appreciate some of the good journalism that provides many details.  

Sigmon was convicted of the double murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001. A nearly twenty-five-year-old sentence raises Glossip-like delay problems (see Breyer's dissent). Unfortunately, that's just a dissent.

He kidnapped the ex-girlfriend, but she escaped. Sigmon himself granted the death sentence probably wasn't unfair. I think emotionally laden crimes arising from personal grievances are less heinous, generally speaking, than other types of cruelty. OTOH, at some point, murder by baseball bat is rather bad. 

His lawyers did claim mitigation:

Mr. Sigmon’s lawyers have said that he suffered from an inherited mental illness and childhood brain damage. Those factors, they have argued, contributed to him murdering the Larkes with a baseball bat. After he killed them, Mr. Sigmon tried to kidnap his ex-girlfriend.

I am usually open to the argument that murderers are not merely 100% a product of free will. How much that advances his case here is open to debate.

The bottom line is that executing him after 25 years seems gratuitous to me. There are people out there who are dangerous and/or deserve long prison sentences. He is one of them. 

I don't think executing him is necessary. 

South Carolina disagreed, performing (details) the first execution by firing squad since 2010 (Utah). As with Alabama's usage of nitrogen gas, it remains to be seen if this is a precedent.